Don Mattingly

While our local baseball teams continue to track free agents and send out trade feelers, something else happened this week. The Hall of Fame voters received their ballots, and with them a bittersweet reminder of one former great.

He’s cocky. He’s arrogant. He’s extremely unlikable. And he doesn’t play the great game of baseball the right way, the way it’s supposed to be played. Who am I talking about? You know who. I’m talking about Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig.

Not only do many of us see the Dodgers as a five borough endeavor, an extension of our blue-collar grit and white-collar elitism, but we now must watch our enemy rocket to the top with a Yankee icon at the helm.

Donnie Baseball deserves another look from Hall of Fame voters. Between 1984-1987, Mattingly averaged 29 home runs and 120 RBIs per season. His on-base plus slugging during that stretch was .918, .939, .967 and .937.